Thursday, June 7, 2012

Omnivores!

The generation that lived in the wilderness was an extremely special generation. Because of their added kedusha-holiness- Hashem continuously put them through tests in order to purify them.

This week’s parsha goes into their next spiritual test. After eating the mann for three meals a day, everyday, since leaving Egypt, the airev ravs- Egyptian converts- were the first to start complaining about generating physical cravings (because the mann provided spirutal nourishment, the Jews were on such a high level that most people only needed spiritual nourishment). Some members of the Sanhedrin- Jewish court- also started to complain (however, their complaints were not publically vocalized).

Truthfully speaking, if the new converts really only wanted to satiate their physical appetites, they could have slaughtered any cattle that were herding along with Bnai Israel. From this we can see that their true desires were not meat, but rooted in a desire to go back to Egypt, where they could freely partake in any physical desire they wanted, without all the new Torah regulations.

Although the members of the Sanhedrin desired meat for different reasons, in order to fulfill certain mitzvot, and the airev rav’s desire for meat was rooted in their desire to live physically free, as they had in Egypt, (despite the fact that they saw Hashem’s awesomeness and they had been the generation fortunate enough to receive the Torah), they too had an evil inclination that they needed to keep in check.

We are all created with yatar haras- inclinations to sin- giving us the choice to sin. Hashem did not create us to be robots; therefore, the evil inclination was created in order for us to use our good inclination to empower the evil. Despite seeing Hashem’s infinite greatness, members of Bnai Israel were still fighting their evil inclination. From that we can see if the holiest generation alive was inclined to sin, how much more inclined are we to sin?

Furthermore, if everything that Hashem does is for the ultimate good, then Hashem creating an evil inclination must also be good, right? But how can that be, an evil inclination being good? Without an evil inclination, we would all be good people and do good things by default, there would be no other motivation to do good, other than it is our nature. However, Hashem in His wondrous ways instilled within us all the good evil inclination in order for us to rise above the evil and conquer it, thereby, owning the good behavior (rather than it just being a natural motivation). Now tell me, who is in charge, you, or the little devil inside? The choice is yours.